1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a one-piece three-dimensional collapsible insect trap and assembly for capturing and monitoring insects. The one-piece trap comprises a collapsible carton container coated externally with polyethylene and internally with glue or other adhesive and/or with pheromone or kairomone or other attractant. The carton container, collapsed for shipping and storing, is easily assembled into a three-dimensional trap which can be opened for monitoring a number of captured insects and closed with a top closure comprising locking clasp for further use. In the assembled form, the trap has a delta or diamond tunnel shape with an opening on each side permitting entry of the insect lured by the internal pheromone or kairomone coating, capturing of the insect with the glue coating and monitoring the number of captured insects by counting the total number of insect captured or number of insect captured on one grid square. The trap is protected externally from the weather conditions by its protective coating. The trap comprises essentially a carton container suited to be assembled into a three-dimensional trap, a locking clasp and, optionally, an attachment means for attaching the trap to a place of insect infestation monitoring.
2. Background of the Invention
The standard insect traps used for capture and monitoring of such insects as the codling moth, oriental fruit moth, peach twig borer, and most other fruit and vine insects, are not very effective and user friendly and typically the user is exposed, at least to some degree, to the insecticide of the trap. Similar is true with traps, insofar as they are available, to capture many different orders of insects including the Coleoptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera attacking row crops such as cotton and corn.
The foregoing insects create millions of dollars of damage every year in the U.S.A and other countries around the world. For example, the codling moth infests over two million acres of apples and pears globally, the oriental fruit moth infests more than 300,000 acres of peaches and nectarines; corn rootworm infests twenty one million acres of corn and thousands of acres of other row crops and the pink bollworm infest up to 4 million acres of cotton globally. Because of inaccuracy, inefficiency and impracticability of the currently available monitoring traps, in all cases of insect infestation of important crops, the use of insecticides is much higher than necessary. Sometimes, because of unavailability of accurate monitoring data, as many as fifteen applications of insecticide are used to control these insects when one or two may have been sufficient if the correct monitoring data have been available.
Therefore, the availability of practical, simple and reliable monitoring insect traps which would allow more accurate determination of a degree of the infestation and monitoring of the infestation would be very practical in determining an actual need for a number and frequency of insecticide applications.
It would, therefore, be important and advantageous to have available a safe, convenient, practical, simple, accurate and reliable insect monitoring trap which would be user friendly, efficacious in attracting and capturing the insect and practical for monitoring of a number of captured insects.
The current invention provides a new and improved one-piece, three-dimensional collapsible insect trap and assembly thereof having all the above attributes. The one-piece trap comprises several novel features making it extraordinarily practical and effective.
All patents, patent applications and publications cited herein are incorporated by reference.
One aspect of this invention is a one-piece three-dimensional collapsible insect trap having improved design which provides a practical, efficient and accurate insect monitoring and capturing system.
Another aspect of this invention is a one-piece insect trap comprising a collapsible carton container coated externally with polyethylene or other protective coating and internally with glue or other adhesive and/or with pheromone, kairomone or other attractant applied on a surface of the imprinted monitoring grid.
Still another aspect of this invention is a carton container equipped with a locking clasp, collapsed for shipping and storing, which is easily assembled into a three-dimensional trap which, in turn, can be opened for monitoring a number of captured insects and closed with the locking clasp for further use.
Still yet another aspect of this invention is the insect trap which, in the assembled form, has a delta or diamond tunnel shape with two openings, one on each side, said openings permitting entry of the insect lured into the trap by the internal pheromone or kairomone coating, capturing of the insect with the glue coating and monitoring the number of captured insects by counting the number of insect captured on one square of the monitoring grid.
Still yet another aspect of this invention is the insect trap assembly comprising essentially the carton container and a locking clasp and, optionally, an attachment means for attaching the trap to a place of insect infestation monitoring.
Another aspect of this invention is a one-piece three-dimensional collapsible insect monitoring trap comprising:
a one piece flat carton container consisting of, before assembly to the insect trap, three panels separated by fold lines into a middle panel and two side panels,
wherein said middle panel positioned between two side panels represents a front panel and a rear panel of a lower or bottom part of the assembled trap;
wherein said middle panel further comprises two protective flaps delineating two insect entry openings into said assembled insect trap, said entry opening formed by an end closure protective flap insertion into a female slot;
wherein said two side panels represent a front panel and a rear panel of an upper part of the assembled trap;
wherein the rear panel comprises a locking clasp component for a top closure of the assembled insect trap, said clasp component comprising a locking device consisting of a wire strip wherein a middle portion of the wire strip is incorporated horizontally into the rear panel and of two locking tabs extending horizontally sideways from the middle portion of the wire strip;
wherein the front panel comprises two openings for receiving the locking tabs of the locking clasp; and
wherein, upon assembling, an assembled trap has an outer side exposed externally and an inner side coated with a glue, pheromone or kairomone or with the glue and pheromone or with the glue and kairomone and an upper part wherein the locking tabs are inserted into the openings on the front upper part thereby locking the carton into the three-dimensional trap; and
wherein the inner side of the middle panel contains a grid for calculation of captured insects.
Another aspect of this invention is the locking clasp component comprising a locking device consisting of a wire strip wherein a middle portion of the wire strip is incorporated horizontally into the rear panel of the assembled trap and of two locking tabs extending horizontally sideways from the middle portion of the wire strip, said locking tabs insertable into two openings positioned on the front panel of the assembled trap.
Still another aspect of this invention is a one-piece three-dimensional collapsible insect monitoring trap assembly comprising:
a one piece flat carton container consisting of, before assembly to the insect trap, three panels separated by fold lines into a middle panel and two side panels,
wherein said middle panel positioned between two side panels represents a front panel and a rear panel of a lower or bottom part of the assembled trap;
wherein said middle panel further comprises two protective flaps delineating two insect entry openings into said assembled insect trap, said entry opening formed by an end closure protective flap insertion into a female slot;
wherein said two side panels represent a front panel and a rear panel of an upper part of the assembled trap;
wherein the rear panel comprises a locking clasp component for a top closure of the assembled insect trap, said clasp component comprising a locking device consisting of a wire strip wherein a middle portion of the wire strip is incorporated horizontally into the rear panel and of two locking tabs extending horizontally sideways from the middle portion of the wire strip;
wherein the front panel comprises two openings for receiving the locking tabs of the locking clasp; and
wherein, upon assembling, an assembled trap has an outer side exposed externally and an inner side coated with a glue, pheromone or kairomone or with the glue and pheromone or with the glue and kairomone and an upper part wherein the locking tabs are inserted into the openings on the front upper part thereby locking the carton into the three-dimensional trap
wherein the inner side of the middle panel contains a grid for calculation of captured insects; and
an attachment means incorporated or attached vertically into the upper part of the front panel, said means projecting through the front panel to the outside of the trap and functioning as an attachment and deployment means of the trap, or attachment means which is an extension of a support rod used for structural support of the assembled trap.
Still yet another aspect of this invention is a method for assembling a one piece insect trap suitable for capturing insect and for monitoring a number of captured insect, said method comprising steps:
a) folding two side panels along fold lines of a one-piece carton flat container consisting, before assembly to the insect trap, of three panels separated by fold lines into a middle panel and two side panels,
wherein the middle panel positioned between two side panels represents a lower part of the assembled trap and wherein the middle panel further comprises a protective flap delineating an entry opening into said insect trap, said entry opening formed by an end closure protective flap insertion into a female slot;
wherein the two side panels represent a front panel and the rear panel of an upper part of the assembled trap;
wherein the rear panel comprises a locking clasp component for a top closure of the assembled insect trap, said clasp component comprising a locking device consisting of a wire strip wherein a middle portion of the wire strip is incorporated horizontally into the rear panel and of two locking tabs protruding horizontally sideways from the middle portion of the wire strip;
wherein the front panel comprises two openings for receiving the locking tabs of the locking clasp; and
wherein, upon assembling, an assembled trap has an outer side and an inner side;
b) closing a top closure of the clamp component by inserting the locking tabs through the two openings positioned on the front panel and bending the tabs horizontally outward from the middle portion of the wire of the locking device thereby locking the trap into its diamond or delta shape; and
c) inserting the end closure protective flap into female slots positioned the middle panel of the one-piece configuration thereby forming two entry openings for insect.
Another aspect of this invention is a method for monitoring of a number of insects comprising steps of unlocking a locking device of an assembled trap and counting the number of insect captured on one square of the monitoring grid imprinted on the middle panel of the inner side of the carton container coated with glue.
Still another aspect of this invention is a method of use of a one-piece assembled trap as a non-poisonous insect monitoring system useful in detecting and monitoring the population of insect of order of Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera, monitoring a crop infestation and/or capturing the insect.